Transport system for underground mining

ABSTRACT

A transport system for underground mining in which the cars, including the tractor and the trailer cars, have a plurality of supporting wheels in the form of flanged rollers provided with concavely curved surfaces which engage a track consisting of a pair of longitudinally extending convexly curved rails, the flanged rollers being inclined downwardly and outwardly so that only a portion of the roller bears against the cylindrical rail. The rails are carried by eccentric brackets which are secured to ties in the form of upright U-beams. The axles for the rollers are mounted for convenient removal for replacement purposes. The car is made up of a pair of horizontal plates, one of which rotates relative to the other about a central pivot. A cylindrical arm is carried on each side of the swingable plate as support elements. The cars, except for the tractor, are equipped with safety brakes for clamping engagement with the rails, and these are spring urged to braking position, but are retained away from braking position by fluid pressure. A cable traction drive is provided for the tractor, the cable of which is guided between flange rollers mounted on the track between the rails. Also arranged on the track between the rails are idler cable guide rollers.

United States Patent [1 1 Widiger et al.

[451 Nov. 27, 1973 Hoflmann, Ruhrblick l6, Hattingen, both of Germany '22 Filed: Nov. 19,1970

[21] Appl. No.: 91,004

[52] US. Cl. 104/244, 295/34, 238/134 [51] Int. Cl B6lb 13/00 [58] Field of Search 238/62, 134, 135;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 199,974 2/ 1887 Harding et a] 104/244 488,155 12/1892 Turner 104/119 908,272 12/1908 Kaga 238/62 1,136,839 4/1915 Seidel 295/7 1,352,881 9/1920 Vaughn... 238/135 2,920,918 1/1960 Nojima 295/1 3,028,887 4/1962 Fliezar et al. 141/65 3,194,178 7/1965 Weston 104/119 Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Robert Saifer Attorney-Malcolm W. Fraser 57 ABSTRACT A transport system for underground mining in which the cars, including the tractor and the trailer cars, have a plurality of supporting wheels in the form of flanged rollers provided with concavelycurved surfaces which engage a track consisting of a pair of longitudinally extending convexly curved rails, the flanged rollers being inclined downwardly and outwardly so that only a portion of the roller bears against the cylindrical rail. The rails are carried by eccentric brackets which are secured to ties in the form of upright U-beams. The axles for the rollers are mounted for convenient removal for replacement purposes. The car is made up of a pair of horizontal plates, one of which rotates relative to the other about a central pivot. A cylindrical arm is carried on each side of the swingable plate as support elements. The cars, except for the tractor, are equipped with safety brakes for clamping engagement with the rails, and these are spring urged to braking position, but are retained away from braking position by fluid pressure. A cable traction drive is provided for the tractor, the cable of which is guided between flange rollers mounted on the track between the rails. Also arranged on the track between the rails are idler cable guide rollers.

1 Claim, 9 Drawing figures PATENTEDHUYSY m5 3,774.54 v SHEET 2 OF 7 iNVENTOFS Z Wu PMENIEUHUY 7 mm SHIU 3 BF 7 INVENTORS FAIENTEDHVT; 7 I575 FIG.6

INVENTORS an; I I

TMENTEUHUVPT I975 SHEET 6 BF 7 FIG.8

PATENTEDRUVZT ms SHEET 7 BF 7 QOE INVENTOF? S TRANSPORT SYSTEM FOR UNDERGROUND MINING BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to equipment for a railway for underground mining, whose rolling stock is guided laterally for passing through horizontal and vertical curves on a track composed of horizontal bars.

Such rails replace to an increasing degree the monorail, overhead chain and trolley conveyors developed for the handling of underground material and passenger transportation, because they are left suspended on the floor level instead of in cooperation with the super structure timbering or walling. These rails differ from the track of miners trams or narrow gauge field railroads using the profile of the mine. Furthermore, through their forced guidance it is possible for them to pass without difficulty through depressions, in addition to sharp horizontal curves.

It is already known that for decreasing the width or gauge of such a railway, the rail is constructed out of angle sections on which the car wheels travel and guide rolls are provided for forcefully guiding the cars in a longitudinal plane. The large number of wheels required in this connection is disadvantageous. These wheels also strain the track to an appreciable degree, and the wear occasioned thereby may be overcome through the replacement of the worn rails. On the whole, the investment and operational costs of these rails are too high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a rail track, which in spite of forced guidance employs relatively few rollers and the rails constituting the track can be used again after they are worn.

In accordance with the invention, the wheels for the track consist of rollers whose planes are inclined slantingly to the center of the track and have concavely formed bearing surfaces. The rails on which such rollers travel have convexly curved bearing surfaces, whereby for the forced guidance of the car in each case one of the two of the roller flange portions engages the rail.

The slanting inclination of the planes of the rollers to the center of the track imparts to the track on the one hand, the necessary stability, and on the other hand, it permits an engagement with the inner side of the rails so that forced guidance of the car results in the vertical curves. As a consequence the guide rolls previously required are not necessary.

Furthennore, such a track enables the rails of the track to be constructed so that their curved bearing surfaces lie on the inner and on the outer side of the rail, so that when wear of the rails occurs, they may be reversed and can then be used again. These rails are suitably formed of cylindrical steel profiles or section shapes. Especially hollow profiles can be used to advantage, such as pipes or tubes.

The change of the bearing surfaces of the rails when wear occurs requires a special mounting enabling simple rotation of the rails. The steel profiles or tubes forming the rails are fixed on brackets offset eccentrically to their longitudinal central plane and these brackets are secured by holders which are fixed to the cross ties for the rails. These ties may consist of U- beams which have their legs extending upwardly. The

steel profiles or pipes forming the track are disposed on the ends of the horizontal bars, and can be aligned free from gaps. With the ordinary lengths of horizontal bars, which is about 3 m., a sufficient swivel or swinging capability of the track exists to cover without difficulty depressions and ridges.

On a track composed of such horizontal bars, the cars travel on wheels, which may be formed of rope guide rollers provided with concave bearing or rolling surfaces. These rollers may consist entirely or at least on the bearing surfaces of synthetic material, in order to reduce the noise. It is advisable to provide the bearing for the roller axles with access slots which extend parallel to the rails to enable the ready replacing of rolleis.

The rolling stock for the road comprises a car constructed as tractor, whereby the other railroad cars are coupled to the tractor and each is equipped with safety brakes. This has the advantage that the driving energy needs to be imparted only to one car, and the danger of the other cars becoming cableless is avoided.

The tractor may have relatively small dimensions and in this case is provided with additional ballast. For this purpose a reserve cable drum is mounted thereon and an oil tank with pressure generating pump is also carried by the tractor.

The cars may have a relatively great load capacity, if they are sufficiently long. This requires a special arrangement of the wheels. For this purpose the cars are provided with trucks having pivot mountings supported cardanically on their substructure. The pivot mountings may assume a roller coefficient sufficient for the transfer of the static and dynamic forces, and the support of the pivot mountings or trucks makes possible the traveling free from difficulty of narrow curves in the horizontal or the vertical.

The cardanic support of the pivot mounting is achieved by having the pivot mounting connected through a vertical central pivot or king pin with a transverse carrier, which has two horizontal bearings for two arms arranged on oppositely disposed longitudinal sides of the vehicle chassis. This transverse carrier may be constructed as a plate which rotates on a corresponding plate of the pivot mounting and carries on its sides parallel with the longitudinal sides of the vehicle, brackets for the horizontal bearing. The longitudinal arms for the transverse bearing are suitably formed of pipes.

The safety bufiers or brakes for the cars necessary upon utilization of a tractor are suitably constructed as rail brakes through the use of brake clips or grippers which are resiliently tensioned in applied direction and released hydraulically. To this end a regulator regulates the pressure in the brake cylinder which acts against a spring and is supplied with pressure from a brake oil tank on the tractor. On each pivot mounting or truck a safety buffer or brake of this type is arranged.

The tractor may be equipped with a built in drive, but

.it may employ a cable drive and in this case only the tractor would have a cable carrier. The forced guidance of the traction cable is secured by rollers whose axles are mounted on leaf springs, which are secured to a fishplate fastened to rail ties. The forced guidance of the traction cable may lie in the middle or center of the roadway, and this is particularly desirable because they offer no obstruction to the operation of the railroad.

The forced guidance of the traction cable along curves takes place by means of having the roller planes inclined slantingly. In vertical curves, in any case at least two rollers are required. The planes of the guide rollers are arranged in the direction of travel of the road consecutively to one another, and the rollers adjacent to one another are inclined oppositely to one another, so that the upper roller flanges overlap mutually and project beyond the center of the traction cable passage. The traction cable carrier moves the rollers consecutively against the force of their leaf springs, so that as a result, the roller window formed by the two rollers remains closed.

It is in any case advisable also to provide a roller guidance for the empty or idler cable. The idler cable roller guide may consist at least partially of two roller windows. Both rollers forming a two roller window lie in a common plane, which forms an angle with the plane of the rails.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a track section;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the track section shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the track section shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a tractor car with housing removed;

FIG. 5 is a front view of the tractor shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the trailer car showing particularly the safety brakes;

FIG. 7 is a side view partly broken away of a freight car;

FIG. 8 is a front view of the car shown in FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a front view showing the traction cable guide means and idler cable guide means.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 8 shows that the wheels of the cars constitute rollers 1 of the cable guiding type. These rollers have a concave cable bearing or rolling surface 2 and two roller flanges 3 and 4 which enclose between them the cable bearing or rolling surface 2. The rollers are mounted on axles or shafts 5, which are mounted in bearing brackets 6 and 7.

The center plane for the rollers is indicated in FIG. 8 by broken lines 9 and 10, respectively. The rollers are inclined inwardly on one side of the roadway from the outside with the roller planes 9 forming with the horizontal an angle of 45 on the other side of the track with the center planes 10 from the outside inwardly, whereby the inclinations are equal to each other.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the track sections consist of two rails,'which in this instance consist of pipes 11 or 12. Each pipe has at its ends fastening plates 15 and carrier plates 16, which are also arranged in the middle of the pipe. The fastening plates 15 have bores 17 for screws, which extend through corresponding bores in brackets 14, which are fixed to ties 18. These ties consist of U-beams which are arranged so that the webs 19 are utilized as support or bearing, while the flanges 20 are upstanding and secured to the brackets 14.

Several track sections of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 may be combined, whereby the ends 21 or 22 of the pipes 1 l or 12, respectively, forming the track may project flush in front of one another.

As shown in FIG. 7, at the connecting point 25 between two rail bars connected with one another, there exists a possibility of distortion by the angle a, which in the embodiment by way of example amounts to about 4. In spite of the jointless connection of the horizontal rail bars, therefore, the road may overcome curves in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

As apparent from FIG. 8, the two rails of the track formed by the pipes 1 1 or 12, respectively, have rollers 1 engaging their convexly curved bearing or rolling surfaces 26. These bearing or rolling surfaces lie in the right or left quadrants 27 or 28 of the respective pipes. When the bearing or rolling surfaces 26 are worn, the pipes 11 and 12 may be rotated, so that now the quadrant 29 of the pipe attached to the upper quadrants 27 or 28, respectively, may form the bearing or rolling surface. In view of this, the pipes may be used repeatedly.

The forced guidance along the track takes place so that in each case one of the two roller flange portions 3 or 4 which enclose the roller bearing surface (in the embodiment by way of example of FIG. 8 this is the flange 3) grips the track. The spacing of the roller flange 3 of two oppositely disposed rollers is less than the gauge of the track consisting of the rails 1 1 and 12.

In order to be be able to exchange rollers, there are access slots in the bearing brackets 6 and 7 for the axles 5 and these extend parallel to the rails. This enables a roller to be removed readily and replaced by another.

The gripping of the rails formed by the pipes 11 and 12 is achieved by shifting the brackets 14 together with the fastening plates 15 or 16 mounted thereon, on the ties 18 to a position eccentrically to the longitudinal center planes of the pipes.

The guidance rollers 1 forming the wheels of the railroad may be entirely of synthetic material or have a bearing or rolling surface covered with synthetic material, thereby to reduce the noise caused by the wheels rolling along the tracks.

The rolling stock of the road consists first of a tractor, which is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. The tractor has a chassis which is formed by a platform or base plate 32, on which is mounted a brake oil tank 33 with a pump 34 by which the required pressure of the brake fluid may be secured in the tank 33. On the platform 32 is seated a support 35 for a cable drum 36, which is actuated as reserve drum. The purpose of this arrangement is to provide the tractor 38 with sufficient ballast. Over the parts 33 to 36 of the tractor 38 on the platform 32, a housing (not shown) may be placed.

Under the platform 32 is a cable guide 39 for the traction cable 40 arranged in the middle of the track. In addition, there are disposed on the under side of the platform 32 brackets 42 for the axles of the four rollers 43 in all, which form the wheels of the car.

The other cars of the road are coupled with the tractor, and although the road may haul in addition to freight cars, also passenger cars, only one of the freight cars is illustrated in the drawings. Such a freight car possesses a chassis which is formed by two parallel arms 45 and 46 (FIG. 8) on each side of the car. Cross bars 47 and 48 (FIG. 7) connect the two longitudinal arms 45 and 46 into a frame-like understructure on which two upright bearing supports 49 are secured, which pertain to a tilting arrangement for a trough 50. The arms 45 and 46 fit into bearing boxes 51 and 52, respectively, carried by horizontal supporting tubes 53, which project outwardly from brackets 54. The brackets 54 are mounted on the upper side of a platform 56.

The platform 56 rotates about a central pivot or king pin (not shown) lying on a plate 60 in the longitudinal center plane 59 of the car. Each of these rotary understructures 61 (FIG. 7) is provided with four wheels, which, as above described, are fastened to the plate 60.

The rotary understructure 61 is mounted accordingly through the vertical central pivot or king pin and through the two horizontal bearings 52, 53 connected with the chassis of the car, so that even with relatively great car lengths, each curve in the track may be traversed in horizontal or vertical planes.

Except for the tractor car 38, the other cars 62 of the train are suitably coupled together, but are not connected with the traction cable 40 which is used as a drive. The cars 62 are equipped with safety brakes which prevent a car from leaving the track in the event a coupling breaks. The safety brakes are illustrated in FIG. 6. Identical brake clamps 64 or 65 are used on each rotary understructure. Each clamp has two bell crank arms 66 or 67, respectively, which may grasp by their curved short arms 68, 69 the pipes 11 or 12, respectively. These short arms are maintained apart by means of hydraulic pressure transmitted from the tank 33 and pump 34 to a brake cylinder 70 containing piston rods 71 and 72. A brake spring (not shown) applies the brake when the hydraulic pressure in the cylinder 70 is released. As soon as a car 62 breaks its connection with the tractor 38, the line between the brake cylinder 70 and the tank 33 is broken and the delivery of hydraulic pressure to the cylinders 70 is shut off, so that the brakes are automatically applied by the springs. The brake 65 is illustrated in FIG. 6 in applied condition.

The traction cable 40 is disposed normally in the center 63 of the roadway and passes through a traction cable roller window 58 (FIG. 9). This traction cable roller window is formed by several cable rollers arranged in the center of the roadway. The forced guidance of the cable in vertical planes requires that two rollers 57, 57' be utilized. These rollers are arranged consecutively in the track and adjacent one another. Each roller has an axle 73, which is mounted on a leaf spring 74. The leaf spring 74 is arranged on a bracket plate 76 which is secured to the tie 18 of the track. The two rollers 57 and 57' have roller planes 77 or '78, re-

spectively, which are inclined oppositely to each other. In addition, the upper roller flanges 79 overlap the longitudinal center plane 63 of the track and therefore also themselves.

Where a forced guidance of the cable in vertical direction is not desired, horizontal cable rollers 80 are used. These rollers are supported in brackets 81 which are secured to the ties 18. In addition, these rollers have flanges 83, which prevent the traction cable from running off.

The roadway has an idler cable roller guide which consists partially of closed roller windows 85. Each window 85 is formed by two cable rollers 86 and 87, whose planes or 89 are flush with one another. The common planes of both rollers form an angle with the plane of the track. Both rollers are carried by a bracket 90, which is secured to a tie of the track.

We claim:

1. Transport system for underground mining comprising a car,

wheels on opposite sides of said car for supporting same,

said wheels constituting flanged rollers of the cable guiding type,

an axle for each roller inclining downwardly and inwardly so that the axles on opposite sides incline toward each other,

a track comprising a pair of longitudinally extending laterally spaced convexly curved rotatably adjustable rails along which said rollers travel,

said rails considering them as quadrants of circular pipes constitute the upper right and left quadrants of such circular pipes, respectively, against which the roller portions adjacent the inner side flanges bear only, and

the spacing of the inner side flanges of said rollers being less than the gauge of said track,

whereby the inner side flanges of said rollers enclose the bearing contact with the inner side of said track so that the latter is gripped to effect stability and forced guidance of the rollers therewith, and when the rails wear they may be rotatably adjusted to present other bearing surfaces for further use. a: n: a t: a: 

1. Transport system for underground mining comprising a car, wheels on opposite sides of said car for supporting same, said wheels constituting flanged rollers of the cable guiding type, an axle for each roller inclining downwardly and inwardly so that the axles on opposite sides incline toward each other, a track comprising a pair of longitudinally extending laterally spaced convexly curved rotatably adjustable rails along which said rollers travel, said rails considering them as quadrants of circular pipes constitute the upper right and left quadrants of such circular pipes, respectively, against which the roller portions adjacent the inner side flanges bear only, and the spacing of the inner side flanges of said rollers being less than the gauge of said track, whereby the inner side flanges of said rollers enclose the bearing contact with the inner side of said track so that the latter is gripped to effect stability and forced guidance of the rollers therewith, and when the rails wear they may be rotatably adjusted to present other bearing surfaces for further use. 